Performing an Operational and Strategic Assessment for a Medical Practice

Book Description

Written by one of the foremost experts in the field, this book—the first of its kind—provides expert guidance on how to perform an operational and strategic assessment of a medical practice. It includes proven suggestions and ideas on how to maximize the operational efficiency of a practice, enhance the medical office revenue stream, position the practice for future success, and maintain and increase income. Contains evaluation and assessment forms, as well as sample financial reports.

Customer Reviews:

A good read!.......2002-01-07

This book is written from the consultants point of view. It provides a step by step assessment of the financial management of a medical practice. It gives a good discussion of the impact of internal controls. The final chapter gives a reasonable illustration of the process. I found it helpful but it did not answer all of my questions. I would recommend it to any practice manager.

Book Description

This step-by-step handbook gives production and inventory managers the tools they need to choose and implement an optimal materials and capacity requirements planning (MCRP) system that helps reduce costs, increase sales, and improve their firm's competitive position. At the same time, it fully prepares readers to pass the materials and capacity requirements certification exam given by the American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS). After discussing the basics of inventory and capacity control, MCRP, and bills of material, it focuses on advanced techniques and practices, including the information systems aspects of MCRP, and how MCRP interfaces with organizational functions, including customer service, communications, inventory levels, and vendor negotiations.

Customer Reviews:

Keys to understanding ERP.......2002-07-14

Although this book is focused on material and capacity requirements planning from an MRP perspective, the information directly translates into ERP, making this book essential reading for anyone, business- or technically-oriented, in ERP. The reason is the techniques, issues and factors that this book covers are the same for either environment.

First, this book thoroughly describes materials management, workflow and production capacity, and does so in a clear manner. I especially appreciate the fact that the authors take pains to define and explain every term and concept that they introduce. This is a refreshing change from many book in which assumptions about the reader's knowledge is made, which often leads to frustration or misunderstanding. It also removes any ambiguity and ensures that terms that can have multiple meaning are placed into their proper context.

Second, some of the material is out of date. For example the cited limitations of MRP software applications that existed when this book was written in 1993 have long since been rectified in the newer ERP packages from SAP, Baan and J.D. Edwards. However, even in the obviously out-of-date sections of this book are hidden gems, such as the Class ABCD System that was first developed by Oliver Wright as a means of classifying the maturity of MRP implementations based on answers to a 35 question checklist. This checklist can be applied with virtually no modification to ERP systems. Other gems include the way the authors distill major concepts into their salient points, such as TQM, and show how they relate to MRP, again, the same comparisons can be applied to ERP.

The best thing about this book, however, is the detailed treatment of inventory control, materials requirements management, capacity planning and workflow - all of which are as integral to ERP as they are to the older MRP systems that this book describes. As you read this book you will gain an intimate knowledge of how everything works and fits together instead of a high-level conceptual understanding. That, in my opinion, is the best reason to get this book and thoroughly read it. In addition to this book I also recommend "Manufacturing Data Structures: Building Foundations for Excellence With Bills of Materials and Process Information" by Jerry Clement, John Sari and Andy Coldrick. That book adds the information systems perspective that is based on modern ERP systems and seamlessly augments the material in this book.

Usefull and meaningfull book for MRPII practitioners.......2001-01-15

It provides elementary and important knowledge to those who are interested in implementation of MRPII/ ERP on factories

Handbook of Material & Capacity Requirements Planning

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Handbook of Material & Capacity Requirements Planning
Langenwalter, & Lucier Oden
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OFLWVW

Book Description

Dry cleaning, particleboard, plywood, permanent press fabrics, many popular detergents and common pesticides are all hazardous to human health-that means toxins in your food, your water, your clothes, and your walls. In Toxic Deception, prize-winning investigative journalists Dan Fagin and Marianne Lavelle and the Center for Public Integrity bring you a stunning expos of the secretive world of the chemical giants.

Why do corporations keep harmful products on the market even when safer, cheaper alternatives are available? Consider these corporate crimes:

Secret industry documents and internal records of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) prove that the chemical industry twists scientific studies to mislead the public and play down the dangers of its products, while the EPA stands by.

The EPA usually bases its regulations on safety tests run, directly or indirectly, by the very companies the agency is meant to keep watch on.

Fagin and Lavelle back up their investigations with analysis of a range of scientific studies and, chillingly, the stories of families whose lives have been devastated by toxic products they thought were harmless. The book also explains how you can reduce your own risk and help to revitalize a dying system of health and safety laws.

Customer Reviews:

A book every American should read.......2001-12-01

If you've ever wondered why the public health system in this country is a mess, this book will show you. Basically, the burden of proof to demonstrate that a given chemical is harmful is on the victims or the underfunded EPA, who often, for both financial and legal reasons, have to depend on tests and information given by the chemical companies themselves. If that's not the fox guarding the henhouse then I don't know what is.
The book examines in depth four chemicals : atrazine and alachlor (both pesticides), perchloroethylene (used in dry cleaning), and formaldehyde, which is used in many products, particularly wood-related ones. The companies that make these products include some of the largest and most powerful corporations in the world including du Pont, Monsanto, Ciba-Geigy, Dow Chemical, Borden (yes, Elsie the cow is poisoning you) and Georgia-Pacific. They have armies of lawyers. They have many scientists working directly for them, and many others in academia working indirectly through studies that they fund. They also have bigtime PR firms who hammer home the message that (to quote the title of a related book) Toxic Sludge is Good for You.
Even in the few cases where a chemical actually is banned, the taxpayer then has to make up the difference. We can all be poisoned but heaven forbid that one of these huge corporations should lose a little profit !

informative.......2001-08-16

McLachlan 1996 paper was retracted and the 1st edition was written prior to the retraction.

Very informative on how the EPA works (or doesn't work) and the tactics used by the Chemical companies to mislead.

The precedent established in this book about how Monsanto (Pharmacia) and Zeneca (now Syngenta) act and their lack of concern for people should be kept in mind during the discussion of GMO foods where Monsanto and Syngenta are prime movers.

The book was informative, however, I would check out a copy at the library instead of buying.

Toxic Deception book simply deceptive.......2000-04-25

The enthusiasm of your reviewers for Toxic Deception is unwarranted.This volume is far from a reliable guide to the science and politics of environmental health risks. Let one example suffice. Research from Science (7 June,1996) is characterized by the authors in the following manner; "A recent study of the effects of ... pesticides on estrogen-sensitive cells in test tubes, for example, found that the pesticides were 1,000 times more potent in combination than individually."

The research in question was formally retracted by its authors in Science, on 25 July 1997. The episode was widely discussed and led to an ethics investigation by Tulane University. Toxic Deception was published in 1999. That news of this development took two years to reach the authors stretches plausibility. Moreover, the same environmental foundation (W. Alton Jones) which funded the retracted study likewise supported the publication of Toxic Deception.

Muckraking is not (totally) dead!.......1999-04-14

This is a great book, telling the reader how and why the EPA, the supposed bane of industry, has become toothless in the face of organized opposition (and co-optation) from the industries themselves. Four chemicals, including the drycleaning chemical "perc", formaldehyde, and two pesticides, are followed through the EPA maze, with fascinating diversions to corporate lawfirms, PR flacks, and financial records, until the reader discovers why these dangerous chemicals are not properly regulated. Anyone who understands math knows the EPA will never adequately test the millions of chemicals now in existence--now find out the politics that explain why they can't even properly test or regulate some of the most dangerous ones in common use all over the USA. An eye-opener!

Toxic Deception: How the chemical industry manipulates science, bends the law and endangers your health : An article from: The Ecologist

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Toxic Deception: How the chemical industry manipulates science, bends the law and endangers your health : An article from: The Ecologist
Gard Binney
Manufacturer: Ecosystems Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

In this collection of essays, M. Dane (`Duke') Picard takes the reader on journeys across deserts, mountains, canyons, and rivers from the American Southwest to Italy and France. His blend of vivid description and humor evokes the rugged days of field petroleum geology in the Great Plains and pastel Badlands of Utah and Wyoming in the 1950s and later days unlocking the geological secrets of sandstone in the Rockies.
Along the way, he pokes gentle fun at the academic life in stories that will make anyone smile who's ever sat on a faculty committee or chaired a professional meeting. The final essays on his travels through Provence and Italy are rich with details of the beauty and the history - both human and geological - of the regions.
M.D. Picard is the author of numerous professional articles and books, and has served as president of the National Association of Geology Teachers, the Society of Sedimentary Geology, and the Rocky Mountain section of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. He is well known to the geological community for the essays and book reviews he has published over the last ten years in geoscience journals and magazines.

Customer Reviews:

Hysterically funny, with gripping dialogue.......2004-05-06

Truly one of the best comedies that captures both the Italian and Jewish lifestyle to a tee. I found myself laughing so hard at certain parts that I had to physically put the book down. The book would make an incredible movie, starring BEN STILLER as the mistaken Abruzzi Strangler. Highly entertaining!

Book Description

A nineteenth-century Band of Brothers

The 95th Rifles was one of history's great fighting units, and Mark Urban brings them and the Napoleonic War gloriously to life in this unique chronicle. Focusing especially on six soldiers in the first battalion, Urban tells the Rifles’ story from May 25, 1809, when they shipped out to join Wellington’s army in Spain, through the battle of Waterloo in June 1815. Drawing on diaries, letters, and other personal accounts, Urban has fashioned a vivid narrative that allows readers to feel the thrill and horror of famous battles, the hardship of the march across Europe, the bravery and camaraderie of a nineteenthcentury Band of Brothers whose innovative tactics created the modern notion of infantryman.

Customer Reviews:

Almost as Exiting as a Richard Sharpe Novel!.......2007-10-04

This is a pacey history of the 95th Rifle Battalion from the commencement of their Peninsular Campaign through to the final climatic Battle of Waterloo. The Author draws on Letters etc from a number of Officers & other ranks to add a personal feel for the times.
Great battle descriptions & some very enlightening information on "Black Bob" the commander of the Light Division.
I would recommend this book to all history fans of the Napoleonic War & of the Sharpe TV & Book series.

Wellington's Rifles.......2007-01-06

This is a really good read! Granted I'm a Napoleonic buff, but this is the second book I've read by Mark Urban (The Man Who Broke Napoleon's Codes). I'm really impressed by the readability and detail of his work, and that does not always go together in non-fiction.

A Rifleman's View of the Peninsular War.......2006-11-13

Mark Urban's excellent "Wellington's Rifles" is an innovative history of the 95th Rifle Regiment and especially of its first battalion duirng 1809-1814 in the Peninsular War. Urban's comprehensive research into the memoires, diaries, and letters of members of the regiment during its time in Portugal and Spain has produced an account told from the point of view of the riflemen themselves. This account is very much analogous to Stephen Ambrose's "Band of Brothers" in exploring not only the battle history of the unit but also its internal chemistry and why it was consistently such an effective unit.

Urban paints an honest, warts and all picture of the First Battalion of the 95th. We meet its officers and soldiers under the best and worst of conditions, and find that the Rifles were composed of very normal human beings made into a nearly unbreakable unit by tough but effective training, good leadership, and a well-founded sense that they were special. At the same time, they were prone to the same challenges and temptations as other units. The 95th suffered hunger and cold at the distant end of supply lines, endured incredible marches over the primitive roads of Iberia, survived sometimes horrific wounds on the battlefield, and participated in less than honorable events such as the pillaging that followed the storming of Badajoz in 1812. Urban focuses on several individuals who served for extended periods in the Peninsular War, providing a thread of continuity through the account.

The 95th represented a departure from the standard tactics of the era, of units maneuvering and firing in mass. The Rifles were trained to fight in extended order as light infantry and were issued the Baker Rifle, which made them deadly effective individual sharpshooters at much greater range than their infantry counterparts. As Urban makes clear in his epilogue, the Rifles were the precusor to the modern infantry units of the British and American armies.

This book is very highly recommended to students of the history of the British Army and to students of the military art.

The Real Riflemen.......2006-11-02

Having read just about every Sharpe book by Bernard Cornwell, I wanted to learn about the real 95th Rifles. Mark Urban wrote a readable history of the Rifles, and throughout the book also focused on several individual Riflemem. I do wish, however, that he had drawn some maps of the battles rather than use unreadable copies of old maps.

Wonderful and Informative.......2006-04-19

I freely admit that I'm not some Napoleonic expert who keeps a sabre next to my desk & a shako on my mantle. I've been a fan of Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series for years. I kept meaning to start reading books on the actual Peninsula Campaign and it just so happens this is the first book. That was great luck because this book is wonderful.
Mark Urban keeps the focus extremely narrow. He talks about the Rifle's involvement in the Peninsula and Waterloo and not much else. Huge battles and huge sections of battles are ignored because the 95th just wasn't there. This almost obessive focus results in undiluted information. You get a sense of what it was really like to serve & fight based on great research and fantastic writing. The way he tracked certain personalities across the years gave the book a "story" to hang it's information from. It all worked out to be an enjoyable read that was just dripping with good information.
The reality of the 95th's existence was as interesting, if not more so, than Cornwell's Sharpe. If you're a fan, you need to read this.

Wellington's Rifles Six Years to Waterloo with England's Legendary Sharpshooters

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Wellington's Rifles Six Years to Waterloo with England's Legendary Sharpshooters
Urban Mark
Manufacturer: Walker & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UI9K58

Book Description

A collection of essays written in honour of Professor G. Rex Smith, arabist, historian, and scholar of the medieval history of the Yemen, on aspects of the pre-Islamic and Islamic history of Arabia and the Yemen written by a group of international scholars.

Studies on Arabia in Honour of G. Rex Smith (Journal of Semitic Studies Supplement)

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Studies on Arabia in Honour of G. Rex Smith (Journal of Semitic Studies Supplement)
John F. Healey
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OL0I02

Book Description

The Lysenko affair was perhaps the most bizarre chapter in the history of modern science. For thirty years, until 1965, Soviet genetics was dominated by a fanatical agronomist who achieved dictatorial power over genetics and plant science as well as agronomy.

"A standard source both for Soviet specialists and for sociologists of science."—American Journal of Sociology

"Joravsky has produced . . . the most detailed and authoritative treatment of Lysenko and his view on genetics."—New York Times Book Review

The Lysenko Affair ***Russian Research Centers Studies, 61***

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The Lysenko Affair ***Russian Research Centers Studies, 61***
David Joravsky
Manufacturer: Harvard U.P.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000J0ILLG

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The Lysenko Affair
David Joravsky
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OPFDN0

Product Description

This unique new ASTM manual and supporting CD-ROM compilation (sold separately) provide you with the tools you need to develop a sampling strategy to meet project objectives associated with RCRA waste management activities. Intended as a companion document to EPA SW-846, they feature the step-by-step process for completing a sampling investigation associated with data collection activities for waste identification purposes under RCRA. Included are standards that were jointly developed by several ASTM committees and EPA. The printed manual also includes several appendices, one of which illustrates a practical waste pile example to clearly demonstrate the planning, implementation, and assessment process of a data collection activity. It examines five case studies with varying waste pile characteristics and alternate sampling designs. The four chapters in the printed manual cover: Introduction Sampling for Waste Management Activities: Planning Phase Sampling for Waste Management Activities: Implementation and Sampling for Waste Management Activities: Data Assessment Phase Manual 42 and the supporting CD-ROM compilation serve as a valuable guide for: Engineers; Environmental Managers; Waste Managers; and Regulatory Staff

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